Oil palm spatial dynamics in the municipality of Puerto Wilches. Period 1977-2017

Abstract

Puerto Wilches is one of the municipalities that currently has the largest area planted with oil palm cultivation in Colombia. Despite the importance of the crop in Puerto Wilches, the historical information related to the process of establishment of the crop is deficient and is not supported by cartographic data.

The historical reconstruction of the establishment of oil palm cultivation in the municipality was based on images of the LandSat satellite for the period 1977-2017. Nine images were processed through supervised classification to quantify and represent the area sown with oil palm at different times of the study period.

It was established that by 1977 the municipality had 3025 ha of oil palm, and in 2007 it reached its maximum coverage with a total of 28818 ha. After the affectation of about 42% of the area due to the disease of bud rot in 2018, the area of ​​the crop was reduced to 18229 ha.

The results obtained are a contribution to the historical memory of the municipality and additionally a tool that can be considered for the planning and ordering of the territory